The Trustee Sustainability Working Group (TSWG), a cross-industry trustee group, has launched, aimed at accelerating good investment practice around sustainability across the pensions industry.

The group is comprised of professional trustees, including representatives from HS Trustees, Dalriada, and Independent Governance Group, members of the Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT), and other interested trustees.

An early focus of the committee will be climate change and intends to be action-orientated.

It added it wanted to see transition plans developing across the pensions sector, practical solutions for small schemes, and richer conversations about risk over the next few years.

The committee will seek to use its influence and the influence of the organisations, which members represent to improve stewardship in relation to both investee company engagement (usually through fund manager engagement), industry standards, and policy advocacy.

It also aims to drive better sustainable investment practices across the industry for its key stakeholders, working with schemes, consultant firms, asset managers, and regulators.

The group said it believes pension regulation has helped drive the awareness of sustainability, particularly the issue of climate change, but now has an over-emphasis on low-level reporting.

It suggested this has direct implications for the use of limited resources, especially for small and mid-size schemes, therefore it will be looking to work with regulators and be a “strong voice” for the pensions sector.

Furthermore, it supported the view that much of the climate scenario modelling across the industry was not decision-useful.

TSWG noted that the output often seemed to be at variance with the science, and the group want to support further work in this area to explore why.

The group is currently comprised of HS Trustees chair, Bobby Riddaway, Dalriada professional trustee, Caroline Allensby-Green, PI Trustees' professional trustee, Sarah Marshall, Law Debenture director, Natalie Winterfrost, Independent Governance Group head of sustainability, Tegs Harding, AMNT co-chair, Maggie Rodger, and committee member. John Flynn, Zedra trustee board chair, Anne Sander, Bestrustees trustee, Roger Breeden.

This is alongside trustees Peter Cameron Brown, Natalie Waller and Richard Giles, and Ario Advisory, Mike Clark, who is acting as a guest climate expert.

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